DA daycare
by littlehanyan
Summary: When single father Rei moves to a new town, he does not expect to find love at his son's daycare. Follow him and his awkward crush on young and beautiful Nobara Ibaragi and see how much effort it takes to get together two awkward idiots.


Being a single father moving to a new city was definitely not easy. Now Rei Serio knew that from personal experience. He had to find a nice, cheap apartment and also a good daycare for his three year old son Yoichi. That was probably the trickiest part because the boy just didn't like people. Rei knew Yoichi would start hating the daycare the moment he was left there. Soon his father would have to look for a new one and the cycle would go on and on.

He knew his son wouldn't be happy in this new town but Rei had had no choice. His past salary just hadn't been enough to take care of his boy so when he'd received an offer for a promotion he had yes right away, even though he knew he would have to move to another town.

And that's how on his first day of work, he found himself at "DA Daycare". It was a small but very nice looking building. Rei opened the door and walked inside, where he saw a young woman sticking children's paintings to the wall. She did not seem to have heard him and Rei didn't want to interrupt so he just observed her. She couldn't haven been older than twenty four and was a bit short. She had shoulder-length, curly hair and was wearing a casual blue dress and a white apron. When she was done with the last painting, she turned around and jumped a bit upon seeing him. And as for Rei, he forgot all that he was going to say.

She was a real beauty. _Shit._

"You must be Mr. Serio, right?" Her voice brought him back to Earth and he nodded.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I am Nobara Ibaragi." She walked towards them and kneeled in front of Yoichi. "And you must be Yoichi. Aren't you the cutest little thing?" She pinched his cheek lightly and smiled. "Do you want to come with me?"

And strangely enough Yoichi, who had been clutching his father's hand so hard that it almost hurt, let go and walked right into her arms. She picked him up and turned to Rei. "You can come too if you're not in a hurry. That way you can meet the other staff."

"I have some time so okay."

She led him down a tiny corridor and into a room. There he saw five children playing on the floor with a man. Maybe 'playing' wasn't the right word cause he actually looked in a lot of pain. Upon seeing Nobara, a little girl ran towards her and hugged her legs.

"Aunt Nobara, you're back!"

"Yes, I'm back, Nana. Did something happen?"

The child shook her head. "No, but playing with Hayate just became boring."

"Hey!" The man on the floor yelled as the other children burst out laughing. "If I'm no fun to play with, why don't you get off me?"

Nobara chuckled at that and looked at Rei. "Don't think too much about it. It happens all the time and Hayate actually enjoys it. Anyway, there are two other people working here- Hajime, who is in the kitchen, and Rui, who unfortunatelly isn't here yet."

"D-don't worry, it's fine. I've seen enough to know that I can trust you. The only problem is this little guy." He patted Yoichi's head. "Are you okay with staying here?" The boy nodded his head and relief washed over Rei.

"Okay then. I have to go but I'll see you in the afternoon." He ran his fingers through the boy's hair. "I'll be going now."

He turned to leave but Nobara's voice stopped him. "Wait, I'll come with you."

"No, there's no need to do that."

"It's fine. A have a few more drawings for the wall, anyway." She left Yoichi on the ground and the other children immediately gathered around him, they seemed very interested in their new companion. "Let's go."

Rei and Nobara walked towards the front door without saying much. It was awkward but not an unpleasant awkward. When they reached the exit, Rei took a deep breath.

"I don't know how you did that. You must be pretty good with children."

She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Yoichi is not good with strangers, actually he's not good with people in general. However, he seems to have taken a liking to you." And so had his father.

The woman's cheeks flushed. "You're flattering me. I didn't do anything."

"Believe me, you really did." Rei also blushed a little and the two of them stared at each other. He was going to say something when he noticed the clock on the wall. "Look at the time. I really have to go or I'll be late for work."

"Right. Goodbye, Mr. Serio."

"Goodbye, Miss Ibaragi.

Nobara waved for goodbye and watched him go. When she lost sight of him she covered her face with her hands and sighed. "He is so nice… And so handsome."

* * *

It was already 7 pm. Hajime and Hayate had gone home and Rui and Nobara were left to clean up and watch over the remaining children. The only ones left were Nana and Yoichi. Nobara heard the doorbell ring and soon enough a young woman ran inside.

"Hi, Nobara. I'm sorry I'm late." She rested her hands on her knees and panted, she had obviously ran there.

"It's okay, Mikan. I know you're busy." She gave her friend a hug and then called for the child. "Nana, your mom is here."

When she heard that, Nana ran in the room and towards her mother. "Mommy! I missed you so much!"

Mikan grinned, picked up her daughter and spun her around. "I missed you too, sweetheart. Now let's go home. We can make dinner for daddy while you tell me about your day."

"Yay! I'll go get my coat and say goodbye to Yoichi."

Mikan put her on the ground and Nana ran to the playroom. "Yoichi? Who is that?"

"Our new kid, he came today. He and Nana became friends quite easily."

Suddenly the front door opened and Rei walked inside. Nobara jumped a bit and smiled as her cheeks flushed."Hello, Mr. Serio."

"Hello."

"Yoichi is in the playroom. I'll go get him."

Mikan snickered and followed her friend to the other room. "Who was Mr. tall, dark and handsome?"

Nobara blushed even more. "Mr. Rei Serio. He's Yoichi's father."

"I figured out as much. You know that's not what I wanted to know."

Nobara said nothing and Mikan did not have a chance to ask anything else because they reached the playroom. Nana latched onto her mother's hand and Yoichi glanced at Nobara's. He seemed to be putting a lot of thought into something. Eventually he walked towards her and hesitantly took her hand in his. He was so adorable. Nobara couldn't help but think that and smile as they walked back to the front desk.

When Rei saw the two of them he couldn't believe his eyes. Yoichi wasn't an affectionate child so him holding the hand of a person he'd just met was bizare. Just who was this woman?

Upon seeing him, Yoichi let go of her, ran towards his father and raised his hands in the air in order to be picked up. Rei did that and looked at Nobara. "I'm sorry for being so late. I'm afraid it'll happen daily because I have to work late."

"Oh, it's no problem at all. We already have this girl who works late." She pointed at Mikan who just grinned. "But even if we didn't, staying here for Yoichi would have been totally worth it."

"That's very kind of you." Rei awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "Okay, Yoichi, time to go home. Say goodbye to Miss Ibaragi."

"Just Nobara is okay."

"But…"

"I insist."

"Okay. Than you can also call me Rei. "

She nodded her head and smiled. "Goodbye, Rei. See you tomorrow."

Rei and Yoichi waved for goodbye. "Goodbye, Nobara."

When he was out of the building, Mikan and Rui rushed to Nobara's side.

"You liiiiiike him." Mikan chuckled.

"I didn't know you were into dads, Nobara." Rui interjected.

"Guys, can you please just drop it!"

Rui pretended not to have heard her. "But I can't blame you. He is a 7."

"What are you talking about? He's a solid 10." Nobara argued.

After realizing what she had said, Nobara blushed and that only made Rui and Mikan laugh.

* * *

_To be continued..._

* * *

**I know what you're thinking. 'Here she is with another fanfic even though she hasn't updated anything in months.' and you are right. I am so sorry about that. I was just too lazy and when my muse came back I had to prepare for finals. Anyway this was for the Rei/Nobara week on tumblr. At first I was going to write just a one-shot but there are so many things I want to say so there'll be a multi-chapter fic instead. This AU is so adorable and I really want to work more with it.**

**Anyway, in this fic Rei is 35 and Nobara is 23. I chose Yoichi for Rei's kid because I knew I'd need a lot of OCs for this fic and I wanted to limit them. Nana is obviously Natsume and Mikan's daughter and she is the same age as Yoichi. Natsume and Mikan are both 20, he got her pregnant when she was 17 and both of them have been working hard ever since in order to support their family.**


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